I’m finally reading one of the A Year with Christie 2020 books! The July pick is Death Comes as the End, Christie’s only historical mystery, set in Ancient Egypt.
After the death of her husband, Renisenb and her daughter go back to her father’s house. It’s been eight years, but Renisenb finds that little has changed – her gentle older brother Yahmose is still bullied by this wife, her second brother Sobek is as light-hearted and handsome as ever, her third brother Ipy remains young and headstrong, while Hori, their trust family friend/servant, is just as grave as ever. But when her father returns with a new concubine, Nofret, the household is thrown into chaos. Chaos that starts a chain of death, beginning with the death of Nofret.
The most interesting part of the book for me is the contradiction between the clear amounts of research that has gone into the book and the British-ness (for lack of a better term) of the characters. It’s clear that Christie knows more than the average reader about ancient Egypt (she knows more than me, at any rate), and she cleverly weaves details about life into it, yet you can never believe that this Ancient Egypt because the characters are so typically Christie and hence, typically British (of that period she wrote it). Perhaps she was too accurate in the introduction when she said that this was a story that could have taken place anywhere.
That said, the devolution of the family is written expertly. Christie does a great job showing the surface harmony and then stripping away the facades of each character and letting the reader see all the ugly tensions that lie beneath the surface. The only odd part about the family is that for all the attention Renisenb pays to her brothers and sisters-in-law, she pays very little to her daughter! I almost forgot she had one until she was mentioned towards the end of the book.
The mystery was an interesting one. With each death, the tension in the book increases and Renisenb and the reader gets increasingly confused about what is the truth. The solution is plausible and I was satisfied with regards to the murder mystery.
Overall, this was an interesting book. While I enjoyed it and liked the characters and the mystery, I’m also glad that Christie is not a historical mystery author.
Haha I love your pithy conclusion: “I’m also glad that Christie is not a historical mystery author.” I’ve been looking for a new Agatha Christie mystery to pick up next but ah.. I probably won’t pick up this one 😅
Hahaha it was fun, but if this was all that Christie wrote, I don’t think I would have read as many of her books!
I caught part of a TV adaptation of this one as my boyfriends mother was watching it, and it looked really interesting! I’ll be interested to see for myself how Christie handles the historical aspect. I think because there was so much colonialism there probably was a large British/white presence in Egypt at the time and white people visiting would likely stay within those areas which may be why it was still so British
Definitely give it a try! It’s the only historical mystery Christie writes (although she has a few others set in Egypt) so it’s worth reading just for that!